thread: 2011-02-21 : Into the Unknown?
On 2011-03-22, David Berg wrote:
Ah! Great stuff, man.
Have you considered making the connection on the players' side more concrete?
Oh yeah. For years. Unfortunately, I've given myself a major hurdle for that. Delve is intended for players who prioritize "experience what it's like" over "solve the mystery". So all my attempts to optimize the latter have had to work within the constraints of the former.
I'd like to think that in interrogating Dad, "play through a back-and-forth with the GM" does have a strong connection to "experience what it's like". Do you agree?
I'd love to discuss the trade-offs here! I'm just limiting myself for now because that could be a long chat!
Have you considered designing a way to GM, rather than just instructing us to do what you've trained yourself to do?
That would be fantastic! Um, I have no idea what that would look like, though. Maybe give the GM his own game, where he's using mechanics to try to win something behind the scenes? Award himself 2 points when players invent an unexpected solution; 1 point when they get the info he's left for them; dock himself 2 points when an attempt gets them nowhere. And then spend the points on... uh... I dunno what mechanical rewards best dovetail with the social rewards of "the players dig this stuff that I'm coming up with!"
Can you think of any applicable examples of RPGs where you GM by design, not instruction? All I'm coming up with are games where the players roll dice and then the GM's obligated to respond in a certain way.
What's your insight into real people in real situations that underlies how your game's rules treat its characters?
I'm not sure. I'll offer three different answers (insights in quotes), in the hope that at least one of them will lead us somewhere productive:
1) Delve's rules are pretty agnostic about human behavior, leaving it up to the play group to produce behavior that seems real to them. "Everyone sees people differently."
2) The setting backdrop manifests "incentives matter" via politics, govt, military, trade, geography, etc. The way I roleplay nobles expresses "trust who you know", and the way I roleplay villagers expresses "people come together against common adversity".
3) I think that "getting hit with a sword tends not to kill people instantly" (as per Combat Damage rules). I think "it's possible, with practice, to read another person's body language for clues that you don't get from their speech alone" (as per Social Perception skill rules).
